FEATURE:
The Kate Bush Interview Archive
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
2011: John Doran (The Quietus)
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THIS short series…
allows me to revisit with some memorable print interviews that Kate Bush has conducted through the years. I started off with a 1994 interview that she had with actress Laura Dern for SPIN. This week, as I have been thinking about Bush’s most-recent studio album, 50 Words for Snow, I want to focus on a favourite interview of mine that she gave to promote that album. The Quietus republished the interview in 2014. The reason I wanted to select this interview is that a lot of people do not know Bush gave some print interviews in 2011. She did interviews with the BBC - though people might have passed by the ones she did for various magazines and websites. Not only is there a natural warmth and sense of relaxation from Bush; she seems to have this spark with John Doran. They conducted the interview by phone. We get some interesting details about 50 Words for Snow. The questions are really well phrased. There is a funny moment or two, as it seems that Doran is not completely awake! Bush takes it in good humour. I would urge people to read the entire thing - though there are particular sections that caught my eye:
“Kate Bush: I’m sorry I’m late phoning but I’ve been caught up in another interview that went on for much longer than it should have.
That’s fine. That’s not a problem.
KB: How are you?
I’m great thanks, how are you?
KB: [indecisively] I’m good… [decisively] Yeah! I’m good thanks!
I’ve got a five-month-old boy, he’s my first child so sleep’s at something of a premium. I say this to everyone at the moment because I'm half asleep.
KB: Awwwww!
So obviously looking at the artwork, the track listing, the title, and the lead single ‘Wild Man’ from your new album 50 Words For Snow, it's pretty clear what the theme is. Now culturally snow is really interesting stuff. It can symbolise birth, purity, old age, death, sterility… I was wondering what it means to you.
KB: [laughs derisively] Well, I’ve never heard of it in terms of old age or death… [laughs] That’s quite an opening line. Well, I think it’s really magical stuff. It’s a very unusual, evocative substance and I had really great fun making this record because I love snow.
So Aerial is full of images of clear skies, still water, warm days and it’s full of the bustle of family life and an easy domesticity. 50 Words For Snow is a similarly beautiful album but there is a chill to it - it lacks the warmth of its predecessor. I wondered if it represented another switch from an autobiographical to a narrative song writing approach?
KB: Yeah, I think it’s much more a kind of narrative story-telling piece. I think one of the things I was playing with on the first three tracks was trying to allow the song structure to evolve the story telling process itself; so that it’s not just squashed into three or four minutes, so I could just let the story unfold.
Did the snow theme come from an epiphany or a particular grain or idea? Was there one particular day when you happened to be in the snow…
KB: No. I don’t think there was much snow going on through the writing of this… it was more to do with my memories of snow I suppose and the exploration of the images that come with it.
Now the cover art features a snowman kissing a girl and I was worried that her lips might get stuck to his. Do you know like when you’re young and you get your lips stuck to a lolly ice straight out of the freezer?
KB: [giggles]
And what about the carrot getting stuck in her eye? It’s a health and safety issue.
KB: Well she doesn’t look too worried does she?
The song ‘Lake Tahoe’ has the feel of Michael Nyman about it to me, now I don’t know if that’s the fact it has the choirboys Stefan Roberts and Michael Wood, and maybe it's reminding me of 'Miserere' from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover or not… But anyway, why Lake Tahoe?
KB: It was because a friend told me about the story that goes with Lake Tahoe so it had to be set there. Apparently people occasionally see a woman who fell into the lake in the Victorian era who rises up and then disappears again. It is an incredibly cold lake so the idea, as I understand it, is that she fell in and is still kind of preserved. Do you know what I mean?
…yeah.
KB: [laughing uproariously] Oh John! I’m so sorry! Are you OK? I have this image that you just want to go to sleep and not listen to me! Are you sure you’re OK?
Yeah! Yeah! I’m fine… this is just the way I sound. [flapping] I’m going to treat myself to a very large cup of coffee as soon as I put the phone down.
KB: Well, that sounds like a good idea. And make sure it’s half full.
Now, ‘Snowed In At Wheeler Street’ features the vocal talents of Sir Elton John and I was wondering, was the track written with him in mind?
KB: Yes. Absolutely.
How long have you known him?
KB: Oooh. I’ve known him for a long time. He used to be one of my greatest musical heroes. He was such an inspiration to me when I was starting to write songs. I just adored him. I suppose at that time a lot of the well-known performers and writers were quite guitar based but he could play really hot piano. And I’ve always loved his stuff. I’ve always been a fan so I kind of wrote the song with him in mind. And I’m just blown away by his performance on it. Don’t you think it’s great?
One of the things that I find fascinating about your back catalogue is that you opt to work with people who don’t always make that much sense when you look at it on paper but sonically it always works. So other artists wouldn’t even run into record labels or producers saying to them, 'What the Hell are you doing? You can’t have Lenny Henry and Prince on the same song.' Because they wouldn’t even have thought of doing that in the first place. But to be clear, these experiments - if that’s what you would call them – have paid off handsomely. What do you do to motivate these people who are not pop artists per se, to get performances out of them?
KB: What do you mean?
Well in the case of Stephen did you just say come in and read this or did you have to brief him first on how to deliver what became an excellent performance.
KB: I just briefly explained to him the idea of the song, more or less what I said to you really. I just said it’s our idea of 50 Words For Snow. Stephen is a lovely man but he is also an extraordinary person and an incredible actor amongst his many other talents. So really it was just trying to get the right tone which was the only thing we had to work on. He just came into the studio and we just worked through the words. And he works very quickly because he’s such an able performer”.
Kate Bush has given a lot of interviews through the years. In the earliest days, she was doing so much to get her music out there. It wouldn’t have been the greatest experience. Traveling all over the place and having to do so much promotion, one feels she would rather have been in the studio or at home. When her career progressed, and she was able to be selective and interview from home (from 2005’s Aerial on), we get a sense that the promotional duties are less draining and more enjoyable. In 2011, Bush was balancing motherhood and domestic responsibilities with promotion. That said, she seemed very relaxed and playful (have a listen on YouTube to some of the radio interviews she gave for 50 Words for Snow). Let’s hope that, if there is another studio album, we get interviews from Bush that are similar to the ones with The Quietus. In future editions, I will look at interviews from various times. The 2011 interview is one of my favourite print examples. One can get a sense of the conversation and atmosphere. Doran could have asked the same questions as everyone else but, as you will read, he is quite inventive and original with his line of enquiry. I have read and listened to dozens of interviews Bush has been involved with. In each one, you get something different and utterly memorable. Charming, warm, funny, intelligent and compelling, Kate Bush always delivers…
SUCH great interviews.